What Papua New Guinea can learn from Cuba to fight AIDS

By REGINALD RENAGI

The Health Ministry must now plan to send a special government medical team to Cuba to learn what that small Caribbean country does to combat Aids.

Do you know that Cuba is hailed in the world as a shining example of how to combat successfully the HIV/AIDS pandemic? Today, it has an HIV infection rate of less than 0.1 per cent, in a region that has one of the fastest growing infection rates in the world.

Not only have the authorities virtually eliminated the transmission of the virus through blood transfusion and intravenous drug use, but they have also halted transmissions involving newborns at birth.

Let us see how PNG can learn from Cuba better strategies to fight Aids in our country.  Cuba was one of the first countries to take AIDS seriously as a problem, and provide a comprehensive response combining both prevention and care.

This was not always the case.  In the 1980s, Cuba was widely condemned in the world for its harsh treatment of AIDS sufferers.  The government's initial response then was to subject people with HIV to be either isolated or quarantined. During the SARS outbreak in 2003, patients were far away from the "collective" population in sanitariums.  Not only that, but their sexual partners were subsequently traced and tested, including pregnant women and those who had travelled to Africa; were also tested.

However, at the end of the decade by late 1980s, Cubans were more knowledgeable about the epidemic, and they humanely allowed patients to leave the sanatoriums for extended periods of time. 

A few years later, the government introduced its ambulatory care treatment programme, which enabled AIDS patients to choose between living within the sanatoriums or recovering at home with family members (home-care regime).

Today, people with HIV are guaranteed access to free medical care.  They also don't get fired from their jobs because they are carrying the virus.  There is clearly a strong commitment on the part of Cuban political leadership to undertake a wide-ranging and comprehensive HIV/AIDS action plan - domestically as well as internationally.  This is part of Cuba's activist foreign policy.

In 1983, Cuba set up a National Commission on AIDS, before any cases had even been diagnosed, to educate its 11 million people. Sex education programmes were subsequently introduced in schools and TV ad campaigns informed Cubans about AIDS and the need to promote safe sex.

Over the years, the government began compiling a comprehensive database of those infected with HIV, along with their chain of sexual partners. While HIV testing is no longer compulsory, Cuban health authorities recommend it for pregnant women and those in high-risk categories. Those who do contract HIV are required to attend an eight-week education and drug support programme in a sanatorium.

Some time ago recently, Dr Barksdale, the director of the American charity, Cuban AIDS Project, was quoted as saying: "I don't know if six weeks or eight weeks are the magic numbers, but that is certainly a longer time than is given to people in the US. Who receive such a diagnosis? They may get five minutes' worth of education."

 The amazing thing to remember here is for 40-years the US economic embargo against Cuba resulted in no anti-retroviral drugs being initially available in that Caribbean island. But by 2001, Cuba's growing biotechnology sector was beginning to manufacture generic versions of several HIV/AIDS inhibitors.

Admirably, Cuba is now one of the few developing countries that actually provide its HIV/AIDS patients with a full supply of free drugs.  What's more, do you know that Cuba has sent thousands of doctors and nurses to almost every part of the world to help their valiant struggle against HIV/AIDS?

Cuba also helps in some African countries.  In Botswana, which has the highest proportion of people living with HIV in the world, Cuban medical professionals work in several clinics and hospitals to treat AIDS sufferers and to offer suggestions for prevention. For some time now, the Cuban government offers to train - at no cost - nurses and doctors from other Caribbean countries to fight the pandemic.

More strikingly, Cuba has promised to provide anti-retroviral drugs to its Caribbean friends for a cost well below market prices. What's more some countries in Latin America and Africa are seeking Cuba's assistance in their fight against Aids.

 This is even more impressive when you realise that Cuba is largely a poor, developing country locked in an undeclared war with its superpower neighbour only 145km away.

As a relatively rich and developing country, where is PNG's leadership on this critical issue? 

Cuba's approach to the HIV/AIDS pandemic is a major success story. There is much that PNG and the rest of the world can learn from this compassionate Cuban experience.

I am not even saying here that that Cuba has all the answers to the AIDS epidemic. But I strongly believe that PNG has much to learn from this small Caribbean country in many diverse and creative strategies to help us fight against the Aids pandemic here.

Cuba has a lot of potential and will offer us more to improve our national health-care regime in PNG.  Are you reading this, Minister Zibe and Secretary Malau?

I call on our government to now take up the great challenge left to the PNG health profession by former Health Minister, Sir Peter Barter when he left politics to go back to helping his people in Madang. 

So enough procrastination PNG, let's go over to Cuba now to learn something about fighting Aids.  What's more, let Cuban medical professionals (doctors, nurses, medical orderlys and other specialists) come to PNG to supplement our medical people by helping in rural PNG.  That's where the biggest threat is and need for helping our most-vulnerable population.

Numbers game is on in Papua New Guinea politics

Peter O’Neill says government intact, while opps confident of 34 to topple PM

 

THE numbers game is on in the run-up to the sitting of Parliament next week where a vote of no-confidence in the prime minister is likely to be introduced, The National reports.

While the opposition held a press conference yesterday, saying they could muster the numbers to remove Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, a senior government minister said they were intact and solidly behind Sir Michael.

“The coalition is intact.

“We are fully behind the prime minister.

“The government’s policies and programmes remain on track. The stable environment for business and investment will continue. I want to assure investors and our development partners that,” Public Service Minister and leader of the People’s National Congress party Peter O’Neill said.

The opposition needed a minimum of 34 additional members to give it a simple 55 majority to vote out the prime minister.

However, O’Neill rejected suggestions that one of PNC members, Ken Fairweather (Sumkar), broke ranks and co-signed a statement with Jamie Maxtone-Graham, calling for the removal of the PM.

“Fairweather had assured me he was not a party to that statement being circulated around,” O’Neill said.

Fairweather did not appear in a press conference yesterday, held at opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta’s residence, where Maxtone-Graham distributed the statement.

Maxtone-Graham claimed the two of them were part of a group of 11 MPs calling themselves the “middle group”, who are siding with the opposition to change the government.

The opposition said they were confident of recruiting 34 government members to give them the simple majority required to remove the prime minister in a vote of no-confidence.

“We, in the opposition, are ready to work with our colleagues on the other side to remove this family dynasty,” Sir Mekere said.

Sir Mekere was flanked by deputy leader Bart Philemon and MPs Francis Awesa, Michael Vincent, Sam Basil, Koni Iguan and Maxtone-Graham.

They claimed they were in talks with people in government, but did not say who they were.

Philemon said the opposition was ready to remove the prime minister who had already lost the plot and an old man who has lost his usefulness.

He said the post of the prime minister was on a clean slate and “anyone in government that brings the numbers is capable of taking it”.

Sir Mekere said it was now time for the elected Members of Parliament to listen to the people and destroy the house of Somare.

But a government spokesperson countered this, saying a number of opposition MPs were expected to join the government and the ruling National Alliance party.

The spokesperson said they were also talking to a political party in the opposition.

The spokesperson denied that there was a rift in the National Alliance which was widening, prompting them to “recruit”.

Meanwhile, on the opposition side, deputy leader of PNG Party and Imbonggu MP Francis Awesa denied rumours of a split.

Awesa said the rumours were being spread by people in an attempt to destabilise the party in the wake of the mooted no-confidence motion against the prime minister.

“A lot of people are claiming that the party is divided, which is wrong. We are all intact.

“The eight members are together in the opposition.”

He also claimed the one key party member had been lured by the government but had refused their offer to stay with the party.

 

 

Aussies consider Manus as possible refugee site

THE Australian government is looking at Manus as a possible site for a regional refugee processing facility, The National reports.

This comes after the government encountered strong opposition to a centre being located in Timor-Leste.

But the Australian government is yet to formally raise the use of the Lombrum centre on Manus with PNG leaders.

Foreign minister Stephen Smith has briefed his PNG counterpart Sam Abal on Julia Gillard’s proposal for a regional approach to asylum-seekers during their meeting in Alotau, Milne Bay, last week.

Australian home affairs minister Brendan O’Connor said they would engage with any of the countries within the region on this matter that were signatories to the (UN) refugee convention.

He said this when asked whether Manus Island, used for refugee detention by the previous Howard government, could be a possible alternative site.

“Papua New Guinea is a signatory to the refugee convention and, therefore, we are willing to engage on that basis, because we believe we need to have a regional approach, one that also recognised the convention in that manner.”

Earlier yesterday, the department of foreign affairs and trade released the transcript of a press conference held in PNG last Thursday between Smith and Abal.

Smith explained that he had briefed his PNG counterpart on Gillard’s proposals but had not sought any indications about particular locations for a refugee processing centre.

Abal said PNG had “the place up in Manus” but had yet to consider reopening it.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare said yesterday there was no approach on the matter, and “any consideration would have to go before the cabinet”.

PNG has been housing about 10,000 refugees from fighting across the border in Indonesia for about 20 years in a manner recently commended and applauded by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Manus Governor Michael Sapau had expressed his willingness to have the centre reopened because of the resulting jobs and income for the province.

 

 

Highlands Highway expanding

THE Highlands Highway is to be expanded to a four-lane freeway, Works, Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Don Polye said last Friday, The National reports.

“It will be expanded in stages starting from the Lae-Nadzab section where survey, scoping and design work had commenced.

“Rehabilitation work will continue to Hela’s Koroba-Kopiago and Enga’s Porgera,” Polye said.

He said the government had spent between K700 million and K1 billion on rehabilitating the highway in the past five years.

“Given the highway’s economic significance, the government has given it top priority,” he said.

Polye said on-going maintenance on the highway was being undertaken by different companies funded by different donor agencies in collaboration with the government.

According to a presentation by National Road Authority Planning and Programming Unit manager John Kelly Kaio, there will be progressive rehabilitation conducted on different sections of the highway through the six provinces.

The details of the rehabilitation are:

* Morobe section from Lae city to Yung Creek (Morobe and EHP border) 163km maintained by Transport Sector Support Programme (TSSP);

* Eastern Highlands from Yung Creek to Magiro (EHP and Chimbu border) – 177km maintained by TSSP, Simbu government, national government funding through departments of Works,  National Planning and Treasury and Finance under the Highlands Highway rehabilitation programme (HHRP);

* Western Highlands from Miunde (Chimbu and WHP border) to Togoba junction – 83km maintained by NRA, contracted to Works Department;

* Togoba junction to Nebilyer Bridge – 19km to be maintained NRA through Works Department;

* Nebilyer Bridge to WHP and SHP border – national government contract under HHRP suspended;

* Southern Highlands sections, Kaugel to Kisenapoi – HHRP contract suspended;

* Kisenapoi to Angula Bridge ongoing HHRP contract;

* Angula Bridge to Mendi – no financier;

* Mendi (SHP border) Margarima (Enga border) – financed under ADB to be upgraded under ADB-multi-financing facility (MFF);

* Enga’s Magarima (Enga border) to Kandep – maintained under ADB;

* National government regravelling project to be upgraded under ADB MFF;

* Kandep to Laiagam – regravelling and upgrading under ADB MFF;

* Laiagam to Wabag – 40km maintained under ADB; and

* Wabag to Wapenamanda – reconstruction to be financed by AusAID and Wapenamanda to Togoba, 28km tendered by AusAID under TSSP

The presentation revealed the rehabilitation and bringing of the 1,400km of road to maintainable condition would be carried out in stages over 10 years.

Moresby life: the brutal struggle for survival

BY BRUCE COPELAND

FOR MANY YEARS, the organisation AIDS Holistics has promoted a message of Positive Living. We emphasise the importance of nutrition with daily fruit and vegetables. The staple diet in this country is scones made from white flour.

Positive Living is a sick joke for many people in PNG. They simply cannot afford to eat properly.

We read a recent newspaper advertisement for senior positions in the Department of Foreign Affairs. A director receives K32, 000 a year, a net K80 a day. Take out school fees and children’s lunches and that drops to K50. Take out rent and there is no money for food. And this is the salary of a senior officer. Rents in Port Moresby are out of the reach of middle to top ranking workers.

So the family may have to live in a squatter settlement. They have to dig a garden. There is no way a director in Foreign Affairs could live in a rental house and have his family eat adequately on one wage.

A schoolteacher may earn K240 a fortnight, well under the Australian poverty line. A junior teacher will earn much less. This provides K17 a day, enough for a meal of rice and tinned fish once a day and no money for school fees and lunches. It may buy a bag of flour twice a week.

A security officer may live on K150 a fortnight which is K11 a day, provided the family lives in a squatter settlement. No money for school fees and lunches. One meal a day. In off-pay week, the family may not eat for some days. The family will do worse if the man spends some money on beer.

Corruption in this country is about survival. Families steal to eat. Families become desperate when they find traditional land stolen by fake landowner groups. Any chance of a decent future life fades. The desperation intensifies if there are no jobs.

Yet it makes the mind boggle to stand at the side of the road and watch so many people driving the latest land cruiser vehicles worth upwards of K100, 000. How do they pay?

Social injustice is a way of life in this country. We find PNGDF retrenched officers getting no money. Retired correction officers have pensions stopped. They end their days with nothing after a lifetime of loyal service.

Then in the national HIV/AIDS response, we find AusAID and other advisors earning upwards of K500, 000 with house and car. And the Papua New Guinean AIDS workers are mainly volunteers. Social injustice sponsored by Australia.

What would I do if my family were starving and someone left money within reach? I may well steal to stop my children from crying. And I dig a garden where I can.

There is no value in being honest and having children starving. I have to risk ending up in gaol. The English lower classes ended up as convicts in Australia for the same crimes 300 years ago.

To hell with do-gooders crying about corruption. How can we blame mothers for selling their bodies? What of mothers having their roadside goods scattered and stolen by police?

I have seen police taking bags and stuffing money into their pockets as they return to their vehicle eating the betel nut they have confiscated. Their families may eat well tonight.

National Capital rangers think they have the right to hit people with iron bars. They roam the streets looking for people to bash while stealing their goods. Onlookers scurry in the dirt to pick up scattered betel nut.

I stood in the middle of a bashing, a simple old white man, and all violence stopped. The gang leader apologised that I had to witness such an event. Then he took his men around the corner to do the same again.

I stood beside a policeman while he bashed an old man at the market. He stopped. One day I will end up in the cells being bashed.

What would I do as an unemployed PNG father if my daughter was bringing K15 home each day and I knew she was selling her body? I may well do nothing. Thank you daughter. Wife, ask our daughter if she is using a condom.

And my son was giving the family K5 some days after buying homebrew and marijuana? He must be stealing the money. Thank you, son. Your sisters and brothers will not be hungry tonight.

My daughters never have to sell their bodies while I give them money every day for basic needs. What if I died tomorrow?

What is the great lie that PNG mothers tell their children? Do not worry about me, I am not hungry.

Fruit and vegetables from the market are still the cheapest and most nutritious food - kaukau K2, beans K1, carrots 40 toea, kumu 50 toea, with tinned fish K1.90.

Gentle reader, this is not the time to switch off and tell yourself that all is well. Many families do not have K5.50 to go to the market.

Lack of acquittals results in two-year side-lining of amateur boxing boss

PRESIDENT of the PNG Amateur Boxing Union (PNGABU) Lohial Nuau, who is also the head of the Oceania Continental Boxing Confederation (OCBC), has been suspended for two years by its parent body, the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA), The National reports.

The penalty meted out by the AIBA executive committee was effective from Dec 18 last year.

The suspension stems from Nuau’s failure to acquit funds annually which AIBA had allocated to the PNGABU for the running of the union’s office as well as claims for consultancy fees and monies for international travel and other “unexplained and/or unreasonable expenses and receipts”, according to a report published on AIBA’s website.

The report was made public last month (June 18) from its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

AIBA’s executive director Ho Kim, in handing down the decision, said Nuau had repeatedly failed to provide the executive committee acquittals for various expenses some of which were dubious in nature.

Although Nuau provided an explanation on Dec 16 last year, which included his OCBC finance report, AIBA found evidence of “numerous unconsiderable (sic) expenses and wrongdoings” from the information provided, and launched its own investigation.

The report described Nuau’s response to be “inadequate” and AIBA’s finance commission chairman David B. Francis further stated:

“I also believe there must be some deeper rooted problems that need investigation”.

The three-term PNGABU president was suspended “from all positions in AIBA with immediate effect” on Dec 18 last year. He received notice to this effect together with attachments related to the case (invoices, proof of payments, etc…) from AIBA’s legal manager Anthony Downes three days later on Dec 21.

Among the findings were Nuau’s claims for apparent office space for the PNGABU in Port Moresby with payments made to Naleai Electrical Contractors Ltd for use of its promises.

However this business can not be located in the company register of PNG.

This company had been receiving payments of US$1000 (K3, 300) a month since Jan 2008 as per an office lease agreement but was later discovered to be the residence of a close acquaintance of Nuau.

Other improprieties uncovered by the investigation were Nuau’s signing of a consultancy agreement with IPAVE Ltd for services in amending the constitution and structure of the OCBC, and not acquitting US$5,000 (K15,000) in travel fares for an aborted trip to Milan, Italy to attend the AIBA world championships.

Again there was no evidence of the existence of IPAVE Ltd in the country’s register of companies nor has Nuau repaid the travel expenses.

The firm was paid US$5,500 (K16, 600) as a result of Nuau’s advice.

The reported stated that from the evidence examined “Nuau improperly engaged in business with related parties, on behalf of the OCBC, which enabled him to obtain an improper benefit at the expense of OCBC.”

An estimated K100, 000 in funds was misused, according to the report; however it added that there was a need for further investigation to determine if other offences were committed.

The report stated in conclusion: “The behaviour of Mr Nuau certainly does not meet the standards that one could reasonably expect from the president of a continental federation and constitutes violations of the AIBA disciplinary code (not the least of which is the principle of integrity).

In a significant move, the report also acknowledged the presence of a working committee which was established within the PNGABU. This committee, formed by concerned associations affiliated to the union, informed AIBA president Dr Ching-Kuo Wu in April this year that it had previously (March 23) challenged in court Nuau’s position as PNGABU president. The Port Moresby District court subsequently ruled in favour of the working committee ordering the country’s overall sports governing body the PNG Sports Federation and Olympic Committee to immediately recognise them. Furthermore, the court ordered that PNGSFOC be restrained from dealings with Nuau and the PNGABU executives. It also ordered all union accounts be frozen. This information was passed on to AIBA’s disciplinary committee.

Nuau and his executive filed in court to have the decision quashed and a recent exparte order (July 6) ruled in favour of the current PNGABU executive.

When contacted yesterday Nuau would not answer questions on his suspension or any related matter.

Remembering Bugandi the way it used to be

By MALUM NALU

This week, I was pleasantly surprised to receive some amazing old photographs of Lae from Denis Murrell, a former teacher at the iconic Bugandi High School.
Murrell is now a freelance consultant and writer in China.

He taught at Bugandi from 1968-1971 and is now aged 63, albeit, with fond memories of Bugandi and Lae the way they used to be.

Murrell’s pictures include those of the school entrance with the Mercedes-Benz of legendary Bugandi principal (headmaster) Jack Amesbury in the background.

 Entrance to Bugandi High School, which has changed a lot over the years, with legendary headmaster Jack Amesbury's Mercedes-Benz  in the background.-Pictures courtesy of DENIS MURRELL

Under Amesbury’s guidance, Bugandi became a great and famous school – a far cry from what it is today - producing many students who went on to become academic, political and business leaders in Papua New Guinea.

“I was sent to teach at Bugandi High School in January, 1968,” Murrell remembers.

 Two teachers responsible for the construction of the Bugandi swimming pool, Rhys James and Bernard Swift

“It was my first teaching position apart from a short spell practice-teaching at Goroka High School.

“I saw Bugandi for the first time from the back seat of the principal’s Mercedes-Benz: a neat set of single and double-storeyed buildings situated behind lush, green, well-tended parkland and sports ovals bordered with red canna lilies planted by teacher, Jock Maloney, many years before, variegated crotons and painted, white stones.

 Denis Murrel (back) in his English class at Bugandi in 1968

“Bugandi had been built on the site of a former swamp, a place where people said it would be impossible to build anything.

“At first, just 10 acres were cleared of rainforest and a mess, two houses, a dormitory and two classrooms were built.

“That was in 1959 and amazingly, classes began soon after Jan 21, 1960.

“The school was called Bugandi Upper Primary School and there were just 78 students in standards 7, 8 and 9 and three teachers, two from overseas and one Papua New Guinean.

 Work parade at Bugandi in 1968

“By 1962, the name had been changed to Bugandi Junior High School and in the following year, a man famous throughout the land, Jack Amesbury, was appointed as principal.

“He worked successive groups of students hard over the years, to take the land back from the water, fell trees, clear undergrowth, build roads, plant lawns and gardens and construct playing fields and livestock pastures and I could see the results of this hard work as I travelled down the driveway in Jack’s car.

 Bugandi students working in the classroom

“The school had become a full high school in 1965.

“There were 257 students by then, enrolled in forms 1 and 2, but in 1966, Bugandi began enrolling students from all over the New Guinea mainland and forms 3 and 4 were begun.

“In 1968, for the first time, 87 boys sat for the intermediate certificate while another 58 sat for their school certificate examination.

“When I arrived there were problems; Jack was trying to develop another oval in order to accommodate all the rugby league teams that played at the school each week, but the trees were found to be full of shrapnel.

 Bruce Owner, teacher at Bugandi in 1969 and 1970

“The area closer to the Markham River had been a battleground between Australian and Japanese troops in the Second World War and students often found bits and pieces of Japanese war materiel and occasionally dangerous, unexploded bombs.

“So after 1968, no new land was opened up and a consolidation began.

 One of Bugandi's first female teachers, Joyce Stephenson, in 1969

“Existing buildings were improved or extended.

“The last piece of land developed was an Australian football oval while the last building erected during my stay was a chapel/assembly hall.”

 Student brings in his laundry after work parade

Murrell remembers Amesbury as a stocky, sandy-haired man with a demanding expression and occasional wry smile, a former Royal Australian Navy man. 

“He had been present on an Australian vessel at Wewak during the surrender of the Japanese and, consequently, he ran his school like the huge naval ship that he had been used to.

“Jack always referred to his students, no matter how young, as ‘men’ and his first words at every assembly were always ‘right men! on deck!’

“The students were up at the crack of dawn to shower in the ablution blocks.

“They ate a breakfast of wheat-meal cakes with jam and hot tea in the mess and then listened to the morning news on 9LA as they prepared for lessons.

“Some boys were rostered each day to keep the area around their domitories clean and tidy.

 Getting ready for work parade at the Bugandi assembly ground

“They wore government-issued white cotton drill shirts and navy or khaki shorts.

“Assembly was at seven sharp and no-one, absolutely no-one, was ever late.

“The assembly area in those days was to the right of the main drive-way into the school, in front of Jack’s office and the small staffroom, which was quite inadequate for a staff of 24.

“After assembly, English master, Charles Cazabon, and his staff, would take all the form one students to the two messes for 20 minutes of English language drills, while the other students went straight to classes.

“Students were punished for speaking their own village languages and Tok Pisin.

“They were required to speak English at all times and were reported to the principal by the prefects if they did not.”

During lessons, Jack Amesbury would often suddenly appear at a classroom window and take all the boys - Bugandi was a boys’ school in those days - and the teacher, out to work on the school farm or some other task.

“Classrooms had usually 25 double-desks accommodating up to 50 students per class.

“Sometimes there was a cupboard and for the teacher, there was a table - but no chair.

“Jack Amesbury didn’t like his teachers to sit down during their lessons.

“Some teachers would sit on a desk or even on the table but would always keep a wary eye out for an approaching principal.

“If you were caught sitting during a lesson, you could expect to be scolded in a way that only Jack could manage, and in front of your students too.

“Lessons for the students finished at 1pm and were followed by lunch, usually consisting of kaukau, other vegetables and soup.

“Boys rostered to mess duty helped the cooks to serve and clean up.

“The school was divided in to four houses and one house had to do work parade one day per week, all afternoon, until about 4.30.

“Some boys worked on the farm or at caring for the flower gardens, some cut grass with their serifs around teachers’ homes, while others cleaned the ablution blocks.

“Some boys worked on special projects like building the new swimming pool, or constructing the fish ponds, the new chapel/assembly hall or the tractor shed, while others ran the school tuck-shop operated by the Bantin Co-operative Society, whose president was Utula Samana.

“Selected boys helped Charles Cazabon in the library and others helped me to print t-shirts in the art room.

“After work parade, the students could relax until dinner or perhaps do their laundry.

“Dinner consisted of rice, instead of kaukau, and some green vegetables like aibika or spinach with some bully-beef or tinned mackerel.

“Immediately after that, from 7 until 9, boys went for night study in their classrooms, supervised by duty teachers.

“No-one could be late or absent without a good reason and the duty teacher would count the students present in each room.

“Following that, students were then free for an hour but had to be in bed by 10pm, lights-out time.

“Students could go into Lae town with permission on Saturdays and Sundays but they had to be back in their dormitories by midnight on Saturdays and 10pm on Sundays and the duty teacher and prefects would be waiting to catch those who might be late.

“There was usually a small group of boys up for punishment on Monday mornings for being back late.

The school, according to Murrell, had 20 prefects appointed by Jack Amesbury and presided over by the school captain and his deputy.

“These two students were in control of over 300 boys who not only studied, ate, slept and worked but who also took part in such things as debating, art activities, the Cadet Corps, first aid activities, scouting, civil defence, preparing the school magazine, the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, traditional dancing, the organisation of the annual school mumu, and of course, sport.

“They played rugby league, Australian football, hockey, basketball, cricket, volleyball and baseball.

“Many teams from all over Lae played in a rugby league competition held at the school each Saturday and every Bugandi student was required to take part.

 Bugandi teacher Charles Cazabon and his wife at top town in Lae.He taught at Bugandi from 1967 until 1970

“On Friday nights, students watched a 16mm movie flown over from George Page’s store in Port Moresby, movies like ‘Elephant Walk’ or ‘Giant’.

“During that first year and during the three further years I taught at the school, I cannot remember any boy not working hard to prepare for his future.

“In the late sixties, it was not easy for a boy to go to high school and boys who were selected used their lucky chance wisely.

“They knew that any boy who didn’t follow the Bugandi way of doing things could be immediately dismissed and sent back to his village."

How kiaps got things done in the colonial days

By MALUM NALU

Last Friday evening, I was at the Weigh Inn Hotel at Konedobu, having a quite yarn with former kiap (patrol officer) Graham Pople, already the subject of two articles in The National’s Weekender about Papua New Guinea as it used to be. 

Graham Pople besides a picture of the Port Moresby Post Office in its heyday.-Picture by MALUM NALU

Response to the two articles, which touched on his memories about his kiap days, has been quite phenomenal and I asked him why kiaps could conduct a census on foot in those days while government officers with millions of kina can’t do likewise in 2010.

 Preparing for a census in Laiagam in 1959.-Pictures by GRAHAM POPLE

An interesting point, as earlier last week, the much talked-about 2010 census had been deferred to 2011 because of various reasons including “insufficient funding”.

It’s early days yet, however, this could have adverse effects on services such as health, education, infrastructure, law-and-order, the much-vaunted Vision 2050 and even the 2012 national elections.

Pople’s never-before-published autobiography and patrol diaries contain reminisces of his days as a kiap and Member of the first Papua and New Guinea House of Assembly in 1964.

 Traditional bridge over a river in Laiagam

Simply titled The Popleography, it gives a fascinating insight into life in the then Territory of Papua and New Guinea in those far-off pre-independence days, as well as the first House of Assembly.

Pople writes candidly about how he conducted a census and law-and-order in Laiagam, Enga province (then part of Western Highlands) in 1959.

Indeed food for thought as I wondered what has gone wrong and why national statistical office staff had conducted the cardinal sin of not conducting a census in its scheduled year: something that had never been done before.

“Most of my time while at Laiagam was spent in patrolling,” he remembers.

 Haus kuk (cook house) for a patrol in Laiagam in 1959

“My initial job was to go around the valley recording names in village, clan and lineage groups.

“Recorded some 65,000 names in the Lagaip Valley.

 Getting a log for a bridge in Laiagam, then part of Western Highlands, in 1959

“Every day was also a court day.

“Court day often meant just that, but often it was more of a mediation process.

 A typical camp site in the Highlands

“If a dispute could be settled amicably by paying pigs or shell than that was the chosen way to do it.

“Prison terms were often given that but that was mainly for assaults or garden theft or rioting and fighting.

“There was no paid labour on the government station and all upkeep was done by the prisoners.

“They had no complaints.

“They were houses and fed and generally happy for their period in gaol.

“They knew they had done something wrong and accepted it.

“The only escapes were when someone heard that his wife was playing up or a child was sick or his pig had been killed.

“But application to the POIC (patrol officer in charge) was often given a sympathetic hearing and he was allowed out in the custody of his village leader or luluai.

“The capacity of the prison was space limited to about 30 occupants.

“On one occasion, there was a tribal fight in which two major clans were involved and some 400 warriors were sentenced by me to a gaol term.

“It was impossible for me to accommodate them, so after discussions with the two luluais involved it was agreed that each clan would work on the section of the road through their tribal areas for the term of their gaol sentence.

“They would sleep in their own houses and their wives/mothers would bring food to where they were working.

“A daily roll call, to ensure attendance, would be held.

“It worked very well and everybody benefitted with the road work that was completed during the two-month period.

“They knew that they had done wrong and accepted the punishment, but were happy to have the trust-like system which allowed them to sleep in their warm houses as opposed to the prison where their only warmth would come from a blanket or two.

“In 1969, 10 years later when I returned to the area, several of them pointed out with pride the work they had done on the road.

“This was no resentment.”

Pople first arrived in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands, in 1959 and served places such as Jimi, Tambul, Tomba, Wabag, Laiagam, Porgera, Mt Kare, Koroba (Southern Highlands), Kandep, Minj and Banz.

“At this time,” he recalls, “Mt Hagen was growing rapidly but shopping was rudimentary to say the least.

“Danny Leahy has a small store not far from where we lived and there were a couple of other small stores on our side of town.

“On the other side, where the people lived, there were better stores, and if memory serves me well, they were New Guinea Company, Steamships and Burns Philp.

 “Hagen was a centre for coffee-growing which was growing rapidly at that time in the Highlands.

“In later years, that spread to tea-growing but that had not yet started when I first arrived there.”

Tambul, at 7,300ft and the highest station in the Territory of New Guinea at that stage, had an airstrip that was capable of taking DC3 and similar larger aircraft.

Wabag airstrip was at 6,700ft above sea level and built on a sloping ridge with an approach up the valley, a lift on to the end of the airstrip and then full-throttle to climb to the parking bay.

Whilst Pople was at Laiagam, there was always talk of gold at Progera, but he had resolved to stay out of anything to do with Porgera gold and, though offered gold on many occasions, never bought any.

In 1960, Pople was posted to Minj, “which had only been opened in 1957, when Barry Griffin had been sent to pacify the warring locals and open a station”.

“They were an offshoot of the middle Wahgi people and had close affiliations with the people from North Wahgi area.

“There were about 25,000 of them living in the headwaters of the middle Jimi and about another 500 scattered through a large area in the lower Jimi.

“Mt Wilhelm was part of the watershed of the Jimi and the valley dropped down to about 4,500ft near the station to under 1,000ft in the sparsely-populated lower Jimi.

“They were still fighting and there were two mission stations operating.

“One was the Catholic Mission at the foot of Mt Wilhelm at the head of the Jimi River and the other was operated by the Anglican Mission on the north side of the Jimi River.”

Minj and Banz in the great Wahgi Valley were also two other places which Pople resided in and remain close to his heart after almost a half-century.

I’ll leave the last word about him camping one time at Karepuga in Mt Kare in 1959, which some 29 years later, in 1988, would be the scene of PNG’s biggest-ever gold rush.

“We camped in grassland but at the edge of light bush at an altitude of 9,500ft.

“The bush provided some relief from the winds and we all had a better sleep.

“This camp was just to the north of Pinuni creek and only a kilometre away from the area which was to provide the source of the biggest gold rush in PNG history some 29 years later.

“I was obviously not born lucky!”